application is very different than preparing a strong business pitch deck.

Encouraging portfolio companies to visit and engage with the federal laboratories to learn
about available technologies and collaboration opportunities would certainly drive enhanced
relationships leading to technology transfer. Allied Minds is one such company that routinely
interfaces with several federal entities with the primary objective of accessing and gaining
exposure to early stage IP. In the main, Technology Transfer offices are always happy to
coordinate visits from prospective collaborators.

VCs are essentially risk managers and are unlikely to accept more risk to increase the
flow of IP. VCs need to see their investments explode—or fail fast. Return on investment
from Technology Transfer extracted from federal labs would undoubtedly increase if the
lab can define the path to commercialization, even if they cannot execute that path due to
their mission. Quantified data linking research to customer will attract VCs. As such, NSF
I-Corps, Fed-Corp and DHS TTP initiatives are helpful programs. If technology has an
assessed product market fit through a customer discovery process using scientific methods,
in addition to the science of the invention, there is less risk. VCs will take advantage of this
type of program in their investment decisions.

Conclusion

There is currently a mass of untapped technical potential and IP sitting on shelves within
the federal laboratory ecosystem that has been funded by federal agencies. We know that
those concepts which do make it to market, such as laser technology from the 1960s, have
compelling impacts, solve national and global problems, provide a catalyst for greater
success by industry alone, and drive the economy and GDP of the country. The laser is
only one such technology, the Internet is another—it started life at the Stanford Research
Institute (SRI). And there are also many technologies we rely on today that emanated from
the space race.

The results of all these programs are generally clearly visible, as compared with privateinvestment where only those making the investment typically benefit and the outcomesare less visible to society. The advancement and discoveries of industry, therefore, haveonly limited impact as a result, compared with when the outcomes are delivered fromgovernment funded programs. Recommendations to further support unlocking thepotential from federally funded R&D are as follows:• Increase funding to support the transition of technology to entrepreneurs• Enable federal laboratories to better understand business world needs• Engage teams with market positioning early on so that modifications can be built inaccordingly• Create more programs like DHS and TPP to showcase early, impactful technologies• Encourage and find ways to showcase opportunities at all of the federal labsWith these modifications and implemented changes, there will likely be:• Increased technology transition to entrepreneurial and well-established companies• New opportunities generated for discoveries that make an impact on the national andglobal landscape• Economical and viable options delivered to support widespread government use of atechnology• Technology advancement at private expense that will be available to government• A return on the initial investment by enabling economic development from growth of anew industry

Vicki A. Barbur, PhD currently supports the Technology Transfer Office, The MITRE
Corporation, where she works closely with the organization’s engineers, scientists and the
MITRE Research Programs to stimulate innovation and facilitate collaboration among
researchers, academic institutions and federal laboratories interested in developing MITRE’s
innovations.

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